The Morning After: Wednesday, December 13th 2017

July NPD: Downward year over year trend continues, NCAA Football 13 tops sales [Update: Microsoft responds]

This year's long and storied history of an ever-declining physical sales channel in the gaming industry continued during the month of July, as overall sales performance in the non-digital spectrum brought down 20 percent fewer dollars than in 2011 – $548.4 million in July of 2012 versus $686.3 million during the same period last year.

As far as hardware sales are concerned, the 3DS was the only hardware to see an increase in sales year over year, according to NPD analyst Anita Frazier. In fact, the 3DS and DS were also the only two products to see a sales increase over June 2012. In total, hardware sales added up to $150.7 million, down 32 percent from July 2011's $221.4 million.

Accessories, on the other hand, continued the upward year-over-year trend seen last month, with the increase again attributed to virtual currency cards and Skylanders figures. The sector's eight percent increase over July 2011 amounts to $136.9 million.

Physical software sales suffered a 23 percent decline over July 2011, $260.7 million as opposed to $338.5 million, respectively. NCAA Football 13 leads the pack of July's ten best selling games, followed by last month's champion Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes, as well as The Amazing Spider-Man. As per usual, the full list can be found after the break.

Update: Microsoft's response has also been added beyond the veil.

The Xbox was the best selling piece of hardware in July, making this its nineteenth consecutive month as leader of the pack and fourteenth month as the owner of 40+ percent market share, according to Microsoft. In total, 203,000 Xboxen found new homes during the month of July.